The most lackluster Ind-Pak One-Day series ever

At the start of the one-day series a realistic goal for India was to win the series either 4-1 or 5-0 to believe that we are moving in the right direction. The Indian team needs to be congratulated first for the 3-2 series win over Pakistan in some three decades in its home soil. But where does this win actually stand when we put things in cricketing perspective. It is clearly visible that this Pakistan team lacks punch and the Pakistani youngsters are less impressive in comparison to their Indian counterparts. Moreover they came to India with series losses both in test and one-day matches to South Africa. Sure, India did also loose their last home one-day series against Australia. But South Africa is no Australia especially when it comes to playing in sub-continental conditions in the recent past.

But at the end of the series, here we are celebrating the win. During India’s last tour to Pakistan (2005-06), India won the ODI series 4-1, that to coming back from a 0-1 series opener. That Pakistan team was definitely better than the current team. So, if anything has happened in this series, the Pakistan team with less impressive personnel has moved forward with two wins in the series. What we don’t want at this stage is another false dawn like we felt after all those record wins at the start of the Dravid-Chappel era. If anyone in the Indian establishment believes that we are a competitive team to be reckoned world over after this series win, then that belief is soon going to be shattered as soon as we touch the Australian territory next month. Did not we win both our practice one-day series against West-Indies and Srilanka just before world cup and started mission-2007 world cup as one of the major contenders? So, as long as we don’t start winning abroad in one-day games we can’t be reckoned as a force. The 2-1 series win over South Africa in Ireland was a good display. Making it into the final of the triangular one-day series in Australia with at least two wins against Australia in the league stage will be a good start.

Coming to the personnel gain, RP Singh’s consistency and Rohit Sharma’s batting display in the only chance he got are the two most positive things to emerge from this series. Of course Sachin’s sublime batting and Yuvraj’s consistency are praiseworthy, but now they are expected to perform like this. The moment Sachin stops performing like this, questions will be raised against him. Yuvraj has to take his game to the next level as he is going to be the future batting mainstay. Although Robin Uthappa has caught people’s imagination with his sensational and audacious hitting, whenever he bats in the top order, his faulty technique gets exposed. He has to work on his technique for a permanent slot in the team. Sehwag was disappointing. He gets out in the same ridiculous way no matter who is the bowler. I think it’s time for other youngsters to be given a look in. Zaheer Khan looked a little jaded. I think India should preserve him more for the test matches and can do without him in the one-dayers once in a while. Harbhajan’s true test will be the test series to judge his return to form.

The high voltage drama was missing from the start of this series. This is the most lackluster Ind-Pak series I have watched in my time as a cricket follower. If this is how the future Ind-Pak bilateral contests are going to look like then it does not deserve the term “mother of all battles”. Hopefully the test series will be much better and will show some intensity of the past. Anil Kumble’s appointment as captain is a great decision and he will have to justify it with at least a 2-0 win. I hope the decision to appoint Kumble as the captain is based on cricketing logic and not as a parting gift to the best match-winner India has ever produced.